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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Pirates Game 33 Recap - Pirates 2, Giants 1

In what may be the first of the season, and ever, the Pirates won a game with a walk-off...managerial review. Yup, pretty awesome. Starling Marte tripled off the right field wall (thanks to a pretty awful play by Hunter Pence on what should have been just a double) and then the ball got away from third baseman Pablo Sandoval and after some hesitation Marte broke for home. He was initially called out but replayed showed that he got under the tag and it was a win. A Pirates win!

This was actually a pitchers dual between Tim Hudson and Charlie Morton. I know, right? After last night's game that featured 21 runs and 36 hits tonight's game featured three runs and 10 hits. So, kinda different. I will mostly focus on Morton, because who really cares about Tim Hudson (not this guy (/points at self)). For nearly every start this year it was the same thing with Morton. He would pitch well for four or five innings and then one bad inning and the game was over. Not tonight.

Tonight Morton went eight innings and was only the second Pirates pitcher this year to go eight innings (Gerrit Cole being the other). He was in control the entire time and while he only struck out three batters he gave up only three hits and walked two. We can talk about Morton as much as we want but at the end of the day this was just one start. He has been good in short spurts this year but has yet to put the full thing together. Tonight he did. The big key is going to be his next start. Hopefully this is something he can build on because words can't express how badly the Pirates needed a start like this from their starter. It was really a breath of fresh air.

The Pirate offense was largely held in check. When they did get guys on base (Andrew McCutchen leadoff single in the ninth) they weren't able to do anything with it (Pedro Alvarez grounds into double play) and when they weren't getting guys on base they were making outs.

Marte and Ike Davis had a pair of hits and McCutchen had the other. That was about it. But you know what, who cares. The Pirates won.